Household cooking appliances, such as pressure cookers, are well known in the prior art. They are used to produce a hermetic chamber wherein foods are placed, said chamber being able to reach high pressures and temperatures when the appliance is subjected to the influence of a heating source.
The combined effects of the high pressure and temperature levels reached in these known appliances thus make it possible to cook foods extremely quickly, while respecting the organoleptic and nutritional properties of the foods.
So that the user can open the lid in complete safety, without any risk of a sudden outflow from said lid under the effect of pressure, it is necessary to decompress the appliance beforehand.
To decompress a cooking appliance according to the prior art, there are several possibilities.
In this way, the appliance may be placed under running cold water.
However, such a solution is not very satisfactory, as it involves a relatively long decompression time before the chamber reaches a pressure compatible with a safe opening of the lid.
Such a decompression method also proves to be relatively difficult for the user to carry out, as it involves moving the heavy and extremely hot appliance, with all the associated discomfort and risk, to a water tap connection.
In addition, such a method is impracticable if the user wishes to carry out decompression during cooking, so as to open the lid to check the progress of the cooking or simply to add an ingredient. In this case, the user would in fact be obliged to put the cooking appliance back onto the heating source while said appliance is wet, which would particularly be liable to soil, or damage, the heating source and its environment.
Another method, provided by numerous pressure cooking appliance manufacturers, consists of adjusting the regulation valve of the appliance, naturally if said appliance is equipped with a valve, so as to connect the inside of the chamber with the outside. Such a method generally proves to be particularly beneficial, since most of the time it only requires a very simple procedure (actuation of a handle or removal of the valve).
However, this method only gives full satisfaction when the user is familiar with pressure cooking with the appliance. Otherwise, there is a risk of the user causing the projection of extremely hot food during decompression.
In addition, the decompression obtained using this method is generally relatively long, which prevents the user from using it during cooking in order to check the progress of cooking quickly or to add an ingredient.